If You Don't Court Disaster, You Won't Die

After lunch, Zu Hao went alone to the apothecary.

The afternoon sunlight streamed through the carved window lattice, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow across the room filled with medicinal fragrance.

Tiny specks of dust drifted slowly through the beams of light, like fragments of time.

Zu Hao familiarly opened Hu Qingniu's medicine cabinet and took out a small packet of arsenic wrapped in oiled paper.

Zu Hao's expression remained calm as ever. His slender fingers deftly untied the string, as though he held not a deadly poison, but an ordinary medicinal herb.

The Nine Yin Manual indeed recorded that if the Nine Yin White Bone Claw was cultivated with poison, progress would be remarkably swift. However, the poison would invade the body, making it exceptionally dangerous. The slightest mistake could destroy one's meridians and result in death by poisoning.

Few people in the martial world knew this secret, and even fewer dared to attempt it.

But Zu Hao possessed the Negative Reversal System. This was exactly what he wanted.

To ordinary people, poison that burned through the intestines was, to him, a potent tonic.

He stared at the snow-white powder in his palm, the corner of his mouth curling into an almost imperceptible smile.

Returning to the quiet room, Zu Hao fetched a white porcelain teacup, poured the arsenic powder into clear water, and gently swirled it.

The liquid in the cup gradually turned cloudy, giving off a pungent almond-like odor.

Pinching his nose, Zu Hao tilted his head back and drained it in one gulp. His movements were crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

A burning pain immediately surged up from his stomach, as though countless fine needles were darting wildly through his body.

Fine beads of sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and his fingers involuntarily clenched his collar.

At that moment, the system prompt sounded in his mind:

[Reversible item detected.]

[Arsenic: Trace amounts of arsenic may be used for localized treatment of stubborn skin diseases, parasitic infections, and scabies; after special processing, it can have certain effects against severe diseases such as leukemia, liver cancer, and myeloma...]

[Side effects: Acute poisoning, corrosion of the stomach and internal organs, nervous system disorders, damage to the skin and mucous membranes, carcinogenicity, death...]

[Negative reversal: Strengthens the five viscera and six bowels and improves constitution, consolidating one's foundation and nurturing vitality.]

The symptoms that should have been agonizing abdominal pain and convulsing limbs rapidly transformed under the system's effects.

Zu Hao only felt a warm current spreading from his stomach through his limbs and bones. It was as though he were enveloped by a warm spring, leaving him extraordinarily comfortable.

Stimulated by the poison, his Nine Yin true qi rapidly grew and circulated through a full cycle more than three times faster than usual.

Zu Hao slowly raised both hands. As he circulated his power, his bones let out faint yet crisp sounds. A pale blue glow vaguely shone from his fingertips, as though they had been carved from jade.

That power surged and flowed through his meridians, bringing an unprecedented sense of fullness.

"Excellent!"

Zu Hao could not help but shout softly. Feeling the power surging between his palms, his heart was filled with exhilaration.

This system truly defied the heavens. Poisons that others avoided at all costs were, to him, miraculous elixirs that increased his cultivation.

At this rate, it would not be long before he could rank among the top experts, even without considering his psychic power and physique.

By evening, Zu Hao was concentrating on cultivating his psychic power in the courtyard.

Four longswords weaved and danced through the air under the control of his mind, their trajectories ever-changing, like living creatures.

Zhou Zhiruo and Yin Li sat on stone stools nearby, watching without blinking, their eyes full of admiration.

Just then, a figure staggered into the valley entrance.

Her clothes were disheveled, her front soaked in blood, and her loose hair clung to a face streaked with sweat and tears. It was Ji Xiaofu, who had returned after leaving.

"Young Master Zu..."

The moment Ji Xiaofu saw Zu Hao, she stumbled forward several steps and nearly collapsed to the ground. Her voice was so hoarse that it was almost unrecognizable.

Zu Hao raised his right hand slightly. A gentle psychic force appeared out of thin air and steadily supported her. "Miss Ji, how did you come to this?"

His gaze swept over Ji Xiaofu's bloodstained clothes and pale face, and he had already guessed most of what had happened.

Ji Xiaofu had yet to catch her breath. Tears glimmered in the corners of her eyes as she choked out, "I took my master's body out of the valley to bury her... but several junior sisters still refused to let me go. They said I had betrayed the sect and colluded with outsiders, then joined forces to injure me..."

Her voice came in broken fragments. She grieved Miejue's death and was heartbroken by the rupture with her fellow disciples. It was as though her soul had been drained from her body.

Zu Hao took her pulse and discovered that Ji Xiaofu's heart meridian had already ruptured. He said, "Miss Ji, please restrain your grief. Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?"

Ji Xiaofu understood her own condition. She said, "I do not have much time left, and I can no longer protect Buhui. I beg Young Master Zu to send... Buhui to Sitting Forget Peak in the Kunlun Mountains."

"Find her father... Yang Xiao!"

As she spoke, she took out a Ming Cult token and handed it to Zu Hao.

Then, unable to draw another breath, she passed away.

I didn't expect that even after killing Miejue and Ding Minjun, I still failed to change Ji Xiaofu's fate. Sure enough, if you don't court disaster, you won't die!

Zu Hao sighed faintly.

Yang Buhui, who had rushed over after hearing the news, wept until she was drenched in tears.

Zhang Wuji was also deeply saddened, but he still comforted Yang Buhui.

Zu Hao had Zhang Wuji and the others choose a burial site, then laid Ji Xiaofu to rest.

For the next three days, Zu Hao remained in Butterfly Valley and sampled every type of poison Hu Qingniu had stored away.

Heartbreak Grass, Crane's Crest Red, Golden Silkworm Gu Poison... each was more dangerous than the last, yet all were successively reversed within his body into energy that replenished his true essence and tempered his flesh.

Each time he tried a poison, Zu Hao carefully recorded his sensations and the system's response.

He discovered that different poisons brought different improvements: arsenic increased internal energy, Crane's Crest Red strengthened the meridians, Heartbreak Grass tempered the internal organs, while Golden Silkworm Gu Poison had an exceptional effect on psychic power.

However, as he continued taking poison, Zu Hao's body quickly developed resistance. The poisons became less effective with every dose.

At dusk that day, Zu Hao stood in the courtyard and slowly pushed both palms forward.

An invisible force suddenly erupted, snapping an old tree three zhang away from him.

His internal energy broke through level after level, finally reaching the ranks of first-rate experts in this world.

His psychic power also increased to the point where he could control objects weighing seventeen tons, while his sensory range expanded to one hundred and seventy meters. His physical strength far surpassed that of ordinary martial artists, and with his cultivation of the Golden Bell Shield, ordinary blades could hardly harm him.

The poisons and medicinal herbs in the valley had been exhausted, so there was no benefit in remaining any longer.

That evening, during dinner, Zu Hao suggested traveling west to Kunlun, escorting Yang Buhui to find her father, and then searching for traces of the Nine Yang Divine Skill.

Yang Buhui, Zhou Zhiruo, and Yin Li had long since begun to follow Zu Hao's lead, so naturally they had no objections.

Zhang Wuji also happily agreed to go in order to treat his cold poison.

Early the next morning, a horse carriage departed from Butterfly Valley.

Zhang Wuji drove outside, while Zu Hao, Yang Buhui, Zhou Zhiruo, and Yin Li sat inside the carriage.

As they traveled west, they still encountered signs of human habitation at first. Whenever they passed through a small town, Zu Hao purchased ample dried provisions and fresh water.

Whenever they reached the wilderness, he would also use his psychic hand to catch wild rabbits and pheasants for meat.

Yet the farther west they traveled, the more desolate the landscape became.

The Yuan court's tyranny, corrupt officials, and layer upon layer of crushing taxes, compounded by years of drought and locust plagues, had left thousands of miles of barren land. Nine out of every ten homes in the villages stood empty, and the fields had been completely abandoned.

Starving corpses littered the land. Even tree bark and grass roots had been stripped clean for food, let alone any wild game.